Contentful was built as a developer-first platform with a "headless CMS" approach that appeals to engineers. However, what Contentful customers end up lacking is a product that solves better page performance, SEO, and organic growth. Contentful gives you an API framework to work with, but leaves you with all of the work of creating the site experience.
At RebelMouse, you can have the best of both worlds. Our platform spans the spectrum of headless to traditional CMS platforms. You can choose to utilize RebelMouse in the way that works best for your team and business.
Contentful and RebelMouse are both platforms that offer features for creating, managing, and delivering digital content. But here are some key differences that make RebelMouse stand out.
Performance
The decision to allow companies to develop their own front-end systems (i.e., a headless CMS) was initially viewed as an attractive option. However, it has become apparent that Contentful, although capable of facilitating a do-it-yourself approach, is one of the least effective CMS platforms in terms of Core Web Vitals performance. Core Web Vitals are Google’s new benchmark for page performance, and could make or break your site’s ability to deliver.
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The challenge to maintain consistent site performance is steeper for small teams, because the issues that cause slow page speed require significant engineering expertise and investment to fix. For companies operating in the digital realm with limited resources, such as those with an annual budget of less than $5 million, the DIY approach facilitated by Contentful is often not a viable option.
Page performance isn’t just a feature at RebelMouse, it’s woven into our culture. We power the fastest sites on the open web, and we have the data to prove it.
HTTP Archive, a tracking platform that crawls the web to identify trends and record historical patterns, frequently reports on how top content management systems have weathered Google’s steep standards on performance through its
Core Web Vitals Technology Report. As you can see, RebelMouse has consistently outperformed Contentful on Google's most critical metrics since 2020:
HTTP Archive’s Core Web Vitals Technology Report showing Core Web Vitals performance between RebelMouse and Contentful.
Technical SEO
Contentful's CMS relies heavily on a user's ability to develop and execute their own technical SEO strategy, which can be a daunting undertaking. There are a multitude of technical elements that require careful attention to detail, and the significant effort required to implement them can be challenging for many. In practice, the majority of Contentful sites fall short of the technical SEO standards required for optimal search engine performance.
RebelMouse’s SEO technology centers around best practices for search, including:
Our holistic approach to search is a combination of these key technical SEO requirements and an editorial toolset for content creators to optimize their content for search before it’s even published. Together, these two strategies help Google's site crawler identify, index, and rank your content quickly.
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Structured data is a tricky challenge for any website to master. RebelMouse offers an out-of-the-box structured data integration that sets up every page for success on search.
Ease of Use
RebelMouse's CMS is designed to be user-friendly and intuitive, making it easy for writers and editors to create and publish content. In contrast, since Contentful is a headless CMS that often gets paired with complicated and non-standard publishing workflows, it has a steeper learning curve and usually requires technical expertise to get started.
RebelMouse offers a wide range of content creation tools, including a
comprehensive suite of AI features to help streamline the content workflow, including AI-generated headlines, built-in image generator, and text assitance.
Contentful, on the other hand, focuses more on content organization and management, and lacks some of the AI-powered content creation tools that RebelMouse offers.
RebelMouse’s OpenAIalternative headlines proposes new headline ideas and other suggested text with just a click.
Customization Optimizations
RebelMouse allows users to customize their sites with a range of templates and widgets, while still maintaining a high level of functionality. Contentful, while offering customization options, requires a more technical approach and can be challenging for non-technical users.
Here’s a table that breaks down some of these categories, along with other reasons why RebelMouse is the better choice for brands and organizations that are serious about their digital experience:
Feature
RebelMouse CMS
Contentful CMS
Ease of Use
User-friendly and intuitive.
Steep learning curve.
SEO Tools
Provides comprehensive SEO features, including meta description guidance and keyword optimization, along with technical SEO tools, including structured content and Schema.org markup.
Offers some advanced SEO tools, but they can be complex and require technical expertise.
Content Creation
Built-in image editor and social media integration.
Less focus on content creation tools.
Scalability
Scales well for small, medium, and enterprise businesses, allowing websites to grow without worrying about outgrowing their tech stack.
Offers enterprise-level scalability, making it doable for large businesses, but it can be overkill for small businesses.
Page Performance
Offers the fastest page speeds on the open web.
Does not prioritize page speed. It’s up to individual developers.
AI Features
Offers a full suite of AI-enabled functionality, including in-site chat, smart search, image creation, and smart tagging.
Limited AI features.
Both RebelMouse and Contentful aim to help businesses create, manage, and distribute content. However, when it comes to usability, performance, user-friendly features, and modern publishing tools, RebelMouse’s platform stands out as the better option. With its intuitive interface, built-in content editor, robust SEO tools, and AI integrations, RebelMouse makes it easy for both highly skilled developers and non-technical users to create content that’s primed for growth.
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set up a chat to see how we can transform your website.
Our platform is a complete digital publishing toolbox that's built for modern-day content creators, and includes game-changing features such as our:
Why RebelMouse?
Unprecedented Scale
RebelMouse sites reach more than 120M people a month, with an always-modern solution that combines cutting-edge technology with decades of media savvy. And due to our massive scale, 1 in 3 Americans have visited a website powered by RebelMouse.
120M+ Users
550M+ Pageviews
17+ Avg. Minutes per User
6+ Avg. Pages per User
Today's Top Websites Use RebelMouse
Thanks to the tremendous scale of our network, we are able to analyze a wealth of traffic data that informs our strategies and allows us to be a true strategic partner instead of just a vendor.
What Clients Say
We’re here to help you weigh and understand every tech and strategic decision that affects
your digital presence. Spend less time managing everything yourself, and more time focused on
creating the quality content your users deserve.
From start to finish,
RebelMouse blasted away our expectations!
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
Editorial Director
Responsible Statecraft
RebelMouse
brings the strengths of a large publisher (large datasets, expertise, lessons learned from trial and error, close
relationships with search and ad platforms) to smaller publishers. During the build and launch, the team went above
and beyond to ensure we were happy with the new site, and
they flawlessly migrated over 20,000 articles. I can't recommend them highly enough.
Ryan Koo
CEO
No Film School
I love the control panel. Awesome work. I have to say, what an amazing creative team RebelMouse is. I am so grateful!
Terrence O'Hanlon
Founder and Chairman
Reliabilityweb
It’s like we’ve been riding horses to commute all our lives and someone just showed us a Tesla.
Brendan Farley
Vice President, Product Management
Strada Education Network
Thanks to RebelMouse, United doesn’t have to sacrifice great content for speed. You can have both!
Ryan Bujeker
Director, Social Media Strategy & Digital Engagement
United Airlines
We're in a much better position to make it through the current crisis in part due to RebelMouse and their platform.
We've not only saved on overhead costs, we've more easily optimized our traffic with their smart measuring and SEO
tools, as well as their social integrations.
Jill Braff
President/Chief Operating Officer
Brit + Co
THANK YOU for all the good, fast work you put into making our public rollout such a big success. I know we threw a lot
at you very quickly, but you were calm under pressure and pulled it all off perfectly. Very glad to be working with
you all.
Tim Grieve
Executive Editor
Protocol
So inspired and impressed by these results from RebelMouse. Check them out and ask Andrea Breanna how they got there!
Just goes to show that spending millions doesn't necessarily get you to the right destination. It's spending no more
than you need on the right technology with the right platform that does! 🌐💙🏎️
Andrey Lipattsev
Partner Development Manager
Google
It is not often I jump out of my chair and scream in a positive way, but I just did! This is the happiest I have seen
my Managing Editor in 2021! Thank you.
Nick Smith
CEO
Investing News Network
Working with RebelMouse is an actual treat. From the CEO down, every single member of the team has partnered with us
to meet our needs. Everyone willingly (and with endless patience!) shares their expertise and insights to ensure we
optimize search and create a great audience experience. As we have implemented the various search tactics, positive
results are almost instantaneous. Training our content creators has been simple. The system is incredibly user
friendly. As a co-worker commented, "RebelMouse doesn't just sell you something, they partner with you to deliver
exactly what you want." I couldn't agree more!
Emma Schofield
Director of Change Management
Investing News Network
We continue to be huge fans of RebelMouse and envision a very long-term relationship with the platform. The service
has been impeccable.
Douglas Fischer
Executive Director
Environmental Health News
I am a HUGE RebelMouse fan, and basically tell everyone I meet who's looking to overhaul their website to get in touch
right away.
Susan Hassler
Editor Emeritus
IEEE Spectrum
Every member of the RebelMouse team, but especially our project team, are superstars! Our site launch on the platform
met all our expectations and we love the technology. We are positive about the future of our site and look forward to
improving our approaches and processes with RebelMouse's guidance!
Terrence O'Hanlon
Founder and Chairman
Reliabilityweb
RebelMouse's Layout & Design Tool is one of the most comprehensive and flexible tools I have ever used of any CMS.
Their product team is also extremely helpful and constantly supports to make sure your properties are up to date and
use the best industry standards, especially in terms of page speed.
Chuck Lapointe
CEO
Narcity Media
The best thing about RebelMouse is how much they care about their customers. When working with them, I always get a
sense that they go above and beyond for their customers. When working with the RebelMouse team, I very much consider
them to be a partner, rather than just a vendor. Upon migrating to their technology, we have seen tremendous
improvements in many key areas, particularly technical SEO. They have out-of-the-box functionality that is
tremendously helpful to customers. At the same time, their system is flexible enough to allow us to adapt it to any
new business needs that we have.
David Nguyen
Senior Director of Digital Marketing
Investing News Network
RebelMouse has shepherded us through the modernization phase, and has been keen, practical, and nimble throughout the
entire journey. They have helped modernize our website through an infinite scroll setup that allows us more
advertising real estate while creating more time on site to capture reader engagement. Plus, the RebelMouse team has
helped educate our own team on the various aspects of programmatic advertising and worked to best implement them.
Premier Guitar joining forces with RebelMouse in 2020 was one of the best choices we could have made!
Luke Viertel
Digital Strategist
Premier Guitar
RebelMouse has stepped up our content management process by providing a user-friendly interface, robust customization
options, and seamless collaboration tools. The platform's analytics and reporting capabilities have empowered us to
make data-driven decisions, while their exceptional customer support ensures any issues are promptly addressed in a
professional, respectful, and friendly way!
RebelMouse employs a unique, diverse, and decentralized team that consists of 70+ digital traffic experts across more
than 25 different countries. We have no central office, and we cover every time zone to ensure that we’re able
to deliver amazing results and enterprise-grade support around the clock.
Our team is well-versed in all things product, content, traffic, and revenue, and we strategically deploy ourselves to
help with each element across all of our clients. We thrive on solving the complex.